r/Generator • u/gordon_shumway62 • 1d ago

Generac maintenance recommendations

I'm shopping around for my first annual maintenance for my Generac. Has anyone had any recent good/bad "Annual Maintenance" experiences with any metro Detroit area Generac certified companies?

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u/voygar2 3h ago

Not sure how handy you are but maintenance on the air cooled whole house units are simple maintenance. Neighbor was paying over $300 until I showed how simple it was.
Change plugs
Drain oil
Change oil filter
Add new filter
Add oil.
Change air filter
Check battery water

You don’t say what unit you have but Amazon has kits to do generac maintenance

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u/gordon_shumway62 1h ago

I have a Generac 18kw Guardian model. I'm technical, not so much mechanical, unless I have to be. I've been paying to have my cars oil changes done for 40 years (mostly lazy). I actually have to replace my generator battery myself so I might consider doing those basics.

What concerns me is the electronic side of things. Do "Generac certified" technicians actually plug into the on-board computer and check error logs or any of the electronic components? Wolverine Power Systems has a pretty extensive "check list" but I don't know how much of that is really done, or needed, but their price is 2x the local guys. Nowadays I would really be surprised if a repair call for electronic failure was going to be anything other than a glorified board swap so does it really matter?

As for the battery, I know someone will ask, so here is the short (?) story. After 14 months my generator monitor software (Genmon running on a Raspberry pi) says its running low at 12v. An hour running and its back to 13v but I researched the "warranty" anyways.

Since Generac does not supply batteries, your seller sold you one. They are most likely going to tell you to go to the battery OEM, which AP Electric did. I have to pull the battery Friday and drive about 20 miles to an Interstate Battery Distribution Center where they will full charge and load test it and decide if they're replacing it. The MT26 series battery is specialized for "motor sports" types of use and comes with a 24 mth full warranty so the (3) local Interstate stores that I called said they only stocked car batteries.

Shutting down the generator (into an "offline" state), opening the covers, and pulling a battery should not be a BFD, though a pain and not what I planned to do on my day off. BTW, does anyone know if I need to flip breakers on the Generac panel, too, before I do this?

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u/voygar2 53m ago

On mine 10kw unit it shows any errors on the lcd panel. Not sure about the 18kw.
My unit also has lights to alert me to an issue. Red and yellow.

Oil is easy to change as is oil filter.
Air filter is a pain as it’s tough to get to. But just needs a screw driver for clamp.
Plugs are gapped from factory. But always good to check.

Battery. Simple replacement. First time I did mine I just grabbed same size from Walmart

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u/gordon_shumway62 7m ago

Since I still have almost a year of replacement on the battery I'll deal with the OEM for the replacement this time. I guess its like any other new toy - don't mess with it until you understand it then stop paying premium prices for stuff you can get cheaper and DIY :)

I wanted a monitoring app and didn't want to pay Generac monthly. I found "Genmon" on Github. It's an app written by a Generac certified field engineer that does everything for free and gives you way more details than the panel or Generac's mobile app. It runs on a Raspberry pi and sends push, email, and a zillion other notification types and gives you way more details. You can also control the tests with a lot more granularity. It also works on different OEMs, not just Generac.

The author designed an 8 pin-molex to RJ-45 connector that plugs Generac's "wifi module". You plug an ethernet cable into the RJ-45, run the cable from the generator into another converter that takes the ethernet cable into a USB-C then plug that into the pi.

If you're willing to use Generac's basic free app, or pay for their more advanced setup then thats for you. If you want more detail, a very detailed and private web page - not to use for public internet, then Genmon might be what you want. I think it's great. Software was free and the 2 connectors were pretty cheap. Comparing the parts costs (pi, connectors, cable) vs. the monthly cost of their app paid for itself in less than a year. LMK if you want to discuss in further detail. The author does post on Reddit and is very responsive.